


Desperately in need (of some stranger’s hand)

by allthewayto_thevery_end



Category: Harry Styles (Musician), One Direction (Band), Zayn (musician)
Genre: (but it has more to do with the haunting and not with actual domestic violence but like tw anyway), (sorry about that), (sort of), Alternate Universe, Domestic Violence, Haunted Houses, Horror, Kid Fic, M/M, No Smut, OT5 Friendship, Zayn Malik & Louis Tomlinson Friendship, but a bit more of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 07:23:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19718929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthewayto_thevery_end/pseuds/allthewayto_thevery_end
Summary: "The first weird thing that happened in the house was the same afternoon they arrived, Harry was preparing something to eat and the girls wanted to play outside so Zayn took them to the garden right outside the kitchen window where they could see the girls from the open window and left them there reminding them that they couldn’t go away from where they could see them, so they moved around the garden with Harry seeing them from the kitchen and marked the exact perimeter they could wander, it was something they had always done if they were outside, if they had a picnic on the park or if they were in the mall, the girls knew the rule was “stay where we can see you”, “you can run but just to where you can see us”, and both Harry and Zayn figured it was a rule to keep even if they were inside the property because obviously you couldn’t leave kids wandering alone outside.(...) Then he stopped listening noise, everything went quiet and when he looked up Harry was turning at him and said 'Zayn, where are the girls?''What?' Zayn asked back, standing up.'The girls… They aren’t outside', Harry repeated."Or a Haunted House AU literally no one asked for.





	Desperately in need (of some stranger’s hand)

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, as everyone knows (and it should go without saying), this is all fictional.  
> If you do knows the guys and are somehow related to them maybe don't read it.
> 
> Then I'd like to thank the moderators of the [1D Raire Pare Fest](https://1drarepairfest.tumblr.com/) for doing this and for being patient with me, xx.
> 
> And also big big thank to the wonderful [smoke-flowers](https://smoke-flowers.tumblr.com/) ([blueruin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueruin/pseuds/blueruin)) that collabed with me and did two screencaps and a [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6HmV07tF3UTFZgQlQcZS7d?si=IK2KUgjSTKSJ6pRpae6mEQ) (reblog her post [here](https://smoke-flowers.tumblr.com/post/186106693478/a-playlist-made-in-collaboration-with)).
> 
> About the domestic violence tw, I don't think it's too bad at all, but I felt someone could get triggered by it, but as I said it's more the haunting thak makes the characters do weird stuff and not really them.
> 
> The fic is loosely based on _The Haunting of Hill House_ , which I love and also a bit inspired by _Oculus_ which I hate... So there's that.
> 
> The title is taken from the song "[The End](https://open.spotify.com/track/5UgT7w6zVZjP3oyawMzbiK)" by The Doors.

Harry and Zayn were married and had two beautiful daughters, Aisha the older one was six years old and was, according to Harry (who probably had a bit of a biased opinion), the most beautiful and smartest six year old ever, she had big brown eyes and brown skin and her face was perfectly symmetrical, probably thanks to Zayn’s amazing genes, she was also quiet, even as a baby she had never been much of a crier and had always loved looking at books and having time for herself just to play with her dolls; on the other side their younger daughter Erum was like a little tornado, her skin was also brown even if a bit lighter than Aisha’s and her eyes were green like her father’s, she was always dancing around and screaming and talking with her dolls and with everyone who wanted to hear her (which was everyone in their house since she was the queen – or a little dictator as Zayn said sometimes).

They lived all together in a small flat in the city but were looking for a new house where they all could have more space to live. Just when they were starting to look Harry’s uncle passed away and left him as an inheritance a house on a small town, not far away from the city. Harry and Zayn mentioned to his uncle’s lawyer that they might sell it since even if it wasn’t far it wasn’t part of their plans to move away, mostly because all their friend lived there. That was when the lawyer informed them that the house couldn’t be sold until they had lived there for at least a year, at the beginning they thought that was a strange policy, but the lawyer assured them it wasn’t so unusual, people tended to do that when they were attached to a house and wanted that their family at least thought about keeping it, “to make you all also fall in love with the house”, he said.

Zayn, Harry and the lawyer went to the little town and to the house (which wasn’t exactly on the town but like a fifteen minutes’ drive away), so they could see the house and decide if they wanted to stay there. The house was surrounded by woods that apparently were also part of the property and looked like they hadn’t been taken care of in years. But the house itself wasn’t bad, it was old but not falling apart, it seemed like it required some work but they could do it while already living there, it could be their family project and Harry and Zayn both worked as freelancers so they had time in their hands to do it, also outside the house but not too close to the woods there was a lovely garden where the girls could play. If they felt the house had a strange energy or was creepy in any way, they didn’t say anything and left the house (where they could fit their flat at least 6 times) holding hands and nodding to the lawyer.

And that’s how Zayn, Harry and their two daughters ended up moving to a big new (but old) house in a new town. Their friends Liam, Niall and Louis helped them clean up and move all their stuff (which was more stuff than they anticipated “how did you fit all this on that flat?”, Niall complained) to the house and reluctantly left them there.

“Call if you need something, no matter the time, yeah?” Liam said, he was the one that was more unhappy about them moving away from the city since they had lived like fifteen minutes away from each other for years.

“We always do”, Harry said, patting him on the back.

“Yeah, but like it doesn’t matter if the drive is longer, I don’t mind”.

“We know”, Zayn told Liam hugging him goodbye.

“You don’t need to call me”, Louis said, “I will be here anyway, you can’t keep me away from my girls”, he said patting the girls on the head.

And they left to the sound of both girls saying “bye, uncle Louuuu”.

-

The first weird thing that happened in the house was the same afternoon they arrived, Harry was preparing something to eat and the girls wanted to play outside so Zayn took them to the garden right outside the kitchen window where they could see the girls from the open window and left them there reminding them that they couldn’t go away from where they could see them, so they moved around the garden with Harry seeing them from the kitchen and marked the exact perimeter they could wander, it was something they had always done if they were outside, if they had a picnic on the park or if they were in the mall, the girls knew the rule was “stay where we can see you”, “you can run but just to where you can see us”, and both Harry and Zayn figured it was a rule to keep even if they were inside the property because _obviously_ you couldn’t leave kids wandering alone outside.

The girls were playing where Harry could see them from the window and Zayn went also back to the kitchen, he stood behind Harry putting his chin on his shoulder and hugging him from behind to also see the girls play from the window, then he kissed him on the cheek and went to sit at the table, taking his notebook to start drawing a bit with the sounds of Harry cooking and the girls playing in the background. Then he stopped listening noise, everything went quiet and when he looked up Harry was turning at him and said “Zayn, where are the girls?”

“What?” Zayn asked back, standing up.

“The girls… They aren’t outside”, Harry repeated.

Zayn hurried to the window and saw the empty garden, then looked at Harry both shocked “gonna look outside they probably just moved or are coming back inside”.

Harry nodded, while Zayn left and went outside, Harry saw Zayn through the closed window and a while after heard him comeback “they aren’t outside” he said trying to hide how worried he was. Then Zayn gave him a weird look “why did you close the window”.

“What?” Harry said, “I didn’t close anything”, then turned around to look through the window and found it closed, so he opened it and shouted “Aisha! Erum!”

“What?” Aisha said from the garden, “it’s the food ready?”

Harry looked at her with his mouth wide open and then without looking away from her he said “Zayn, they are there”.

If Harry had turned around, he would’ve seen Zayn with a surprised face mirroring his. “Gonna get them”, he said, and went outside again. This time he found the girls where he left them playing on the ground right outside the window. He grabbed them both and took them inside fast.

When they were all in the kitchen and Harry had hug them both to see if they were fine Zayn said “you know you can’t move away from where we tell you”.

“Yes”, both answered looking at them confused.

“Then what were you doing?”

“We were playing outside”.

“Except you weren’t, we couldn’t find you”, Harry said, “Baba even went out to look for you”.

“No”, Erum said, “we were playing outside, Baba didn’t come until he bring us in”. Aisha nodded at her sister’s words.

Harry looked at Zayn completely lost, because it had just happened, Zayn bit his lip and sighed shrugging a bit while looking at Harry saying without speaking “they are fine, we will deal with this later”, Harry nodded and turned back to the food that was actually ready, put it on plates and served them at the table.

-

The next weird thing that happened was Harry as a whole, he usually was a very positive person, that was one of the reasons why he always said he and Zayn were soulmates, because when Zayn saw the glass half empty, Harry always saw it half full, because when Zayn was always a little chill Harry was always warm, and it made them have a great balance in their life, but now Harry was _different_ , like more quiet and snappier, he sometimes would just get annoyed at the girls for stuff that they always did and it had never happened before and Zayn didn’t know how to react to it.

So, after a while he just called Louis to ask for advice, and that was the other weird thing that as much as Louis and the guys said they were going to be there all the time they hadn’t even called to check in, so when Zayn went into town to get the girls out of Harry’s hair after he snapped at them _again_ , he called Louis.

“Zayn! I had wanted to call, I’m just-”, Louis sounded a bit confused “I have been busy, yeah”.

“Yeah, man, I understand”, so he told him all about what had been happening while the girls played on the little square in town. “- and I don’t know, it’s just really weird”.

“Maybe he is just stressed. Is he near a deadline or something?”, Louis asked.

Zayn snorted humourless “no, he isn’t, he explicitly made sure he wouldn’t have any job so we could settle in more smoothly into the house. Besides he never got like this with a deadline”.

“Well, maybe he is bored then, he always likes to be doing stuff… Are you at least getting laid?”

“Louis”, Zayn said, but the fact was they weren’t, they had made out and gotten off the first night after they made sure the girls were alright, but after that nothing, which was also unusual cause they had absolutely managed to do so in their flat, it should be even easier in a big house.

And Louis had always been able to read his tone so he laughed and said “look, this weekend I have Freddie, so I can take the girls, they can have an sleepover. It will be fun. And that way you can also have a sleepover… If you know what I mean”.

Zayn rolled his eyes but said “yeah ok, see you on Saturday”, and hanged up feeling better already.

When they came back to the house that day Harry was in the kitchen and he had already put some apple slices on a plate so the girls could munch on it, they sat at the table babbling about what they had been doing at town and Harry grinned at them, which Zayn thought was good, but then he didn’t seem to be paying attention really, he was standing with his back to them looking through the window kitchen like the first night. So, Zayn went to him “hey, babe”, he said, while putting his hand against his skin under his shirt right above the waistline of his sweats to try to bring him back from wherever he was, “are you alright?” Harry looked at him and reclined towards him, almost melting into him, he put his head on Zayn’s shoulder basically hidden on the base of his neck, “yeah”, he answered, “I’m fine”.

Later that same day after putting the girls into bed Harry was reading a book sitting in the kitchen, _he is always in the kitchen_ Zayn thought, “so…”, Zayn started, “I talked to Louis today when we were in town”. Harry just hummed to let him know he was listening, “and he invited the girls to have a sleepover with Freddie, so he is coming Saturday morning to pick them up”.

Harry looked at him coldly, an expression Zayn couldn’t read, “and didn’t you think to ask me if I was ok with that?” and that was… Unexpected. _Was Harry picking a fight?_ They hadn’t fought in years, not really.

Zayn cleared his throat, “well, I mean, I didn’t think to…”

Harry made a sound interrupting Zayn and standing up, “that’s obvious”, and Zayn was literally speechless. “What if I had plans, what if I wanted you all here this weekend, what if I don’t want our daughters to just go away with someone, _Zayn_?”

And that made Zayn also jump to his feet, Harry saying his name almost as if it was a bad word spitting it out, “not someone” Zayn said, “Louis, our friend, he always takes them. They love him, they love Freddie”.

“I know”, he rolled his eyes as if Zayn was the one being ridiculous, “I just thought we were supposed to be a team, communication and all that, _Zayn_ ” and then he turned around towards the sink as if to busy himself with something else.

“Harry, why are you doing this? First you start a senseless fight and now you look away”, Zayn said exasperated while Harry kept doing whatever at the sink.

“God”, Harry said with the same cold voice, “just leave me _alone_ ”, and it was as if the whole house trembled with that even if he didn’t shout it and then there was a knife and it was flying toward Zayn and thankfully he had good reflexes and moved away and the knife fell besides him flat on the floor.

Harry took a breath in and look at Zayn with his eyes wide open, scared.

“What the fuck, Harry. What the _fuck_ ”, Zayn said in a whisper, his throat was closed, he barely could speak.

“Zayn” he said, “I didn’t mean to”, and now his voice was normal again, and now he was looking at Zayn with pleading eyes and took a step towards him, but Zayn took a step backwards and Harry stopped. Zayn shook his head, “I’m going to sleep now, just-“ he trailed off and made whatever gesture with his hands just trying to say _just stay here, just let me go_ , without actually saying it, then he turned and left the kitchen, and the thing was Zayn knew Harry wouldn’t, he knew Harry didn’t… He knew Harry didn’t threw the knife _at_ him, he just threw it away with his movement when he turned. That was it. _Was it?_

Harry didn’t come to bed until hours later, Zayn even thought he wasn’t going to do it, he thought he maybe was going to sleep somewhere else that night, but eventually he did and Zayn faked he was sleeping when the door opened.

“Zayn?” Harry asked, his voice small against the house’s silence, he sighed when there was no answer, Zayn didn’t know if Harry could tell he wasn’t really asleep, but he laid down next to Zayn and then he whispered “I’m so sorry” without coming close, so Zayn did it, he moved his leg until he touched Harry until they were skin to skin even if it was just in one small place… And Harry was cold.

-

On Saturday Louis was late, which was weird because since he had become a father himself, he was almost never late, the girls were playing in a corner where they always liked to play, with their favourite dolls and blankets already packed on a little suitcase. Harry came out from the kitchen with a plate of food for Zayn because now Zayn didn’t like to enter the kitchen so he just stayed outside and ate standing up or sitting on the sofa, he also had realised he was almost always standing in places where he could get away from Harry fast, but it wasn’t on purpose it was like instinctive, but maybe it was also Harry giving him space, it _could_ be that.

Curiously they didn’t hear Louis’ car, but they heard the knocking on the door.

“Holly shit, I’m late”, Louis said when Zayn opened. “We noticed”, Zayn answered, and let himself be engulfed on a Louis hug. “Where are my girls?” he asked, noticing them still in their corner, which was weird because they loved Louis and always ran to him when he arrived, so, Zayn shrugged, because the other problem was Harry just standing there far from the door without talking or anything.

Louis crouched next to the girls to talk to them in whispers that Zayn couldn’t really make out. And then he stood up and looked around, then frowned. “Weren’t you going to fix up the house?” Louis asked.

“What?”, Zayn said.

“The house… It looks even older than last time”, Louis said gesturing around.

Zayn looked around too, and it felt like he hadn’t paid any attention to what was around in a long time. The house certainly looked dirtier than when they arrived, and it was true they hadn’t done any of the things they said, but he didn’t know why because he had bought paint, he thought, they were going to paint. So, he turned to Harry who was also looking around and his face looked surprised too.

“Didn’t I buy paint?” Zayn asked Harry.

“I don’t think so”, Harry answered, his voice sounded almost like a whisper as if it was hard for him to speak.

Louis looked at Harry, “are you ok, Harold?”

“Yeah”, Harry answered immediately, then he frowned a bit, looking confused “maybe I’m getting a cold?”

Louis looked like he wanted to say something else, but decided against it ( _another one for the weird fest that had been everything lately_ , Zayn thought), “ok, we have to go, come on girls, say goodbye”, he grabbed the girls’ suitcase while they ran to Zayn to give him a hug and then Erum also ran to Harry “bye daddy, hope just you feel better when we comeback”, Harry smiled at her and tapped her awkwardly on the head. Aisha just looked at Harry and waved then grabbed Louis’ hand to walk outside while Zayn picked Erum up to help them get inside Louis’ car.

“They haven’t really played with their toys lately”, Zayn told Louis, “but I packed them their favourite stuff anyway”.

“Yeah, same as always”, Louis said, “he does looks weird, you know? I thought you were exaggerating”.

“I told you”, Zayn said with a sigh, at least it felt good having someone else witnessing it.

“See if the weekend helps” Louis said, “if not, I’ll bring the boys and we will prepare an intervention”.

“An intervention against what?” Zayn asked.

“Well, I don’t know, Z. You figure it out. I’ll bring the girls back Monday morning” Louis answered while opening the door and getting inside the car.

When Zayn got back inside the house Harry was sitting in the couch with his eyes closed. “Hey”, Zayn said somehow awkwardly “do you want a tea?”

“No, I’m fine” Harry answered opening his eyes, “besides, is not like you go into the kitchen anyway”.

“I can”, Zayn said calmly, “that’s why I asked”.

Harry rolled his eyes, and then closed them again.

Zayn sighed trying to decide what to do and then decided to take a leap and try to have a conversation with Harry right there where at least there wasn’t anything to throw at hand.

He sat on the couch next to Harry and took his hand, which made Harry jump surprised and look at him.

“I’m worried, Harry” he said without preambles, “I don’t know what’s going on. Not just with you but like in general”, he bit his lip while kept looking at Harry trying to find the words, “it’s like what do we even do here all day? We are always here but the house is still a mess. We aren’t working. You haven’t gotten out from here since we arrived, and it has been months. I’m supposed to be the one who likes to stay in all the time”, Harry smiled at that, at how Zayn was a homebody while Harry was always coming and going, when they lived in their old flat he went out to talk to the neighbours, he went to the park with the girls or to just hang out with their friends, while sometimes Zayn needed to be convinced to leave the house.

Zayn just stayed there looking at Harry, but Harry didn’t know what to say either, he knew something was wrong too, but he couldn’t pinpoint it and if he tried his head hurt, so it was easier ignoring it. “I think something is wrong with me”, Harry said finally.

“There’s nothing wrong with you” Zayn said, “or it’s like not just you-”, but when Zayn tried to find the words to explain, it was hard like the ideas just left his mind, he sighed frustrated.

“I’m scared though” Harry said leaning on Zayn, “I’m scared because I don’t understand this. But I’m also scared you are going to leave me”.

Zayn looked at Harry and grabbed his chin so he would look at him directly “I’m not gonna leave you”.

“Maybe you should”, Harry said.

Zayn shook his head “no Harry, we are in this together, it’s how is always been, right? I love you and I’m not just gonna leave you. If we-”

“But Zayn, I threw a knife at you, I know I didn’t want to. But I did”,

“It was an accident”.

“Was it really? Cause I can’t say I’m sure”.

“Are you saying you threw that knife at me on purpose?” Zayn asked.

“No”, Harry answered, “of course not, I would never hurt you or the girls”.

“I know that, because I know you Harry Styles”, Zayn said smiling, then he stood up, “come on” he said tugging Harry’s hand so he could stand up too “let’s go to our room”.

-

Later that night Zayn and Harry were curled up in bed, Harry’s head was on Zayn’s chest when he looked up “I love you too”.

“What”, Zayn said with a laugh.

“I love you too. I didn’t say it when we were downstairs, but I do” Harry said smiling and Zayn just kissed him because he hadn’t looked more like himself in a while.

-

Zayn was dreaming, he was running through the woods outside the house but the woods were a labyrinth, and he was alone, he didn’t know where everyone was, he had to find them but he also had to go, and then he fell and it was a hole so he kept falling and then there was water and Zayn didn’t know how to swim and he was drowning and he couldn’t breath and he needed help and-

Zayn opened his eyes; he couldn’t breath and it wasn’t just the dream. He opened his eyes and Harry was on top of him and he had his hands around Zayn’s neck, but he had his eyes closed and he was glowing or there was like strange light coming from him, _why was he glowing_? And Zayn couldn’t breath and what was that voice _“leaveusalsoneleaveusleaveus”,_ But Zayn couldn’t breath and started trying to move struggling because Harry was heavy and strong and Zayn needed help and he tried to grab something but he couldn’t feel anything and then he grabbed Harry’s hair with one hand and pulled hard and Harry screamed but Zayn didn’t let go and suddenly Harry’s hands weren’t in his neck anymore and Zayn could breath again and started coughing and Harry was still on top of him so he pushed him.

“God Zayn” Harry said, he was shaking and looking at his hands, “what- Are you ok?” Harry tried to touch Zayn but Zayn flinched away. Harry let his hands fall. While backing up until his back hit the wall hard, “I’m- I’m sorry. I’m gonna go”, he moved towards the door when Zayn finally spoke “No, Harry, it’s ok”, his voice sounded rough, so he cleared his throat, “I’m ok, babe, you were asleep. Come here”. Harry shook his head but Zayn offered him his hand and he wasn’t going to leave him there, so he went to Zayn and hugged him and started crying while Zayn hushed him “we are okay, babe, we are together” after awhile Harry stopped crying and they just kept hugging. None of them slept again that night.

-

Louis called Zayn to pick up the girls in town, instead of going to the house and they sat on the square while the girls played with Freddie.

“So, the girls said some strange stuff while they were at my place”, Louis said.

“What kind of stuff?” Zayn asked furrowing his brows.

“Did you know they have imaginary friends?”

“What?” Zayn said “they don’t, they just have a very vivid imagination and they invent things, but they know they aren’t real”.

“Well… I asked them why they hadn’t played with their toys lately, right? And Erum said they had new friends and only one of them liked to play with toys, so they did other stuff, Aisha didn’t seem too happy about sharing that information” Louis explained, “I don’t know, they called them the derollins…”

“Derollins? It doesn’t ring any bell” Zayn said.

“But that wasn’t really what worried me”, Louis kept going, “what worried me was that Aisha asked if his daddy was going to stop being angry at them now”.

Zayn sighed “he has-”, but Louis interrumpted him “she said that he locks them in at night”.

“What?”

“Yeah, she said that a while after you put them to bed he goes to the room and lock them with the key and that he comes back in the morning to open. She thinks it’s a punishment”.

“I… I will talk to him”.

“Ok”, Louis said and then “Zayn, look, if something else happens just call us, alright? We can pick you up. And if I’m honest, it sounds like he needs to see a doctor or something. You know it, right?”

Zayn looked at Louis “Yes, but… I don’t know it’s so weird. It’s like when I’m inside the house I can’t think… My ideas all like get lost and I don’t know”.

“Are you blaming the house?” Louis asked.

And then a voice behind them said “of course it’s the house”.

Both of them jumped and turned around to see an old lady standing behind them.

“I don’t know what the hell are you doing living there. That house is evil”.

“It’s a house”, Louis said slowly.

“Don’t use that tone with me, young man. I know it’s a house. But it isn’t any house. You need to take your family and drive away before it’s too late… If it isn’t too late”, and then she looked around, and went away without even looking their way again.

Zayn and Louis just looked at her going away with their mouths open, “she’s obviously crazy”, Louis said putting his hand on Zayn’s shoulder.

“Yeah”, Zayn said biting his lip.

-

Zayn’s phone buzzed letting him know he had a text, it was Louis “look at the mails Nialler and Payno sent you”, then another one “maybe go to town”. Zayn answered “????”. But stood up from where he was and went to see what the girls were doing, playing at their corner. Then he went to look for Harry, he was again in the kitchen this time sitting at the table, Zayn cleared his throat to let his presence be known “hey, babe, gonna go to town. To take the girls for an ice cream”.

Harry nodded “fine”.

“Umm… Do you want to come?”

“Nah, I’m tired, don’t want to go out”.

“Okay then” Zayn waved awkwardly and went away.

Once in town they bought ice cream and sat on the park to eat it, when the girls finished they went off to play at the swings, while Zayn finally took his phone and opened the mails, first Liam.

_Louis told us, don’t be mad, we just want to help._

And it had an archive with the history of the house from when it was first build by a Rowlings family… And what a history, apparently all the people that lived on that house and didn’t leave after a week ended up crazy or missing or… dead. And there were some stories of the stuff that supposedly happened there, according to newspapers, that really made Zayn’s blood go cold.

And then Niall’s mail was an investigation about ghosts and how possessed places and houses looked like, which was chillingly familiar, but was also completely unthinkable.

When Zayn finished reading, he rang Louis.

“I know it’s crazy”, Louis answered as a greeting, “but when I told the guys and they started looking into it, it sort of made sense”

“How?” Zayn asked.

“Come on, Z… And if it’s not that it might be some sort of fungus maybe. I’ve seen that stuff gets in the walls and makes people hallucinate and shit. But even if it’s that it means you have to leave. Come back to the city and see what happens after a while”.

Zayn rubbed his face, looked at the girls and sighed, “yeah, you are right”.

“Do you want us to go pick you up? Just in case?”

“Yeah, the day after tomorrow? In the morning. Text when you are in town”.

-

Zayn didn’t speak to Harry about why he was locking the girls in at night, instead he waited for him to be asleep and went out to their room, he tried to turn the lock and it was closed, but the key was hanged around the lock, so he opened the room and looked inside, both girls were asleep, so he closed without locking and went back to sleep.

One hour later he was woken up by a scream and then another scream, he turned on the light, Harry was there on the bed, then other scream made them both jump out of bed and run to their daughters room, Zayn got there first and tried to open the door but couldn’t do it, but it wasn’t that the door was locked it was as if someone was holding it. There was a weird light coming from inside and noise like if people were running.

Zayn and Harry pushed one time, two times and the third time they heard the wood crack and the door opened, and just for a second Zayn saw three glowing figures standing around the girls that were hugging next to one of the beds, and then nothing, just the girls crying.

They kneeled next to the girls, “everything is fine”, Zayn said, “we are here”, and hugged them. Aisha let go of him and jumped into Harry’s arms “daddy, I was so scared”.

“It’s ok, baby, you are fine. It was a nightmare”, he said, “come on, you can go back to sleep in our room”, he looked at Zayn and Zayn nodded picking Erum up to carry her also to their room, but before leaving the room Harry grabbed the little suitcase they had taken to Louis’ that they hadn’t unpacked yet with them.

And Zayn took his phone and send one text to Louis “We need to go now”.

-

It was 6 pm, it was raining, Zayn didn’t know how the time went by so fast, the girls were again on Zayn and Harry’s room and Louis still hadn’t texted back.

“Zayn”, Harry said in a whisper behind him, “you have to leave, take the girls and go”.

Zayn looked at Harry “we should all leave, come on”, he said getting up.

Harry shook his head “I don’t think _I_ can leave, I don’t know, I can’t explain. But you need to take them”.

“No, Harry, I told you, I’m not leaving you. We should all go now”, Zayn grabbed Harry’s hand, “come on”.

They went upstairs and when they were outside the room Zayn’s phone buzzed, he took it out letting go of Harry's hand in the process, and he received and avalanche of texts from Louis.

_10:30 am – Fuck, I’m just getting this_

_10:30 am – What happened?_

_10:33 am – I’m trying to call you_

_10:40 am – Are you still there?_

_11:02 am – Shit. I can’t find Niall and Liam_

_3:25 pm – Zayn! ANSWER_

_3:52 pm – I’m waiting for the guys they are stuck somewhere_

_5:48 pm – Fuck it, I’m leaving without them_

_8:13 pm – Zayn. Im in town. Where are you?_

The last message was just five minutes ago. _Wasn’t it just 6 pm?_

Zayn texted Louis “Stay there, omw”, and as Zayn sent the message there was a thunder and all the lights went out.

-

“Shit”, Zayn said, trying to see just with the light coming through the windows, “Harry?”, he was right there a second ago, then he heard a noise to his right and then a noise to his left and one behind him he turned all the way around and saw the things he had seen in the girls’ room that morning, it was… _people?_ He guessed, but they appeared in a glow and disappeared again. Then he heard other noise at the end of the hallway and saw Harry laying on the floor, so he ran to him while the figures started going towards the door of the room where the kids were.

“Harry”, he said grabbing him and shaking him, “wake up”, while looking back to make sure that the door of their room was still closed.

Then Harry clasped his wrist “Zayn?” he said with a confused look and then Zayn saw the confusion turn into a blank stare and he started glowing as if there was a light coming from inside of him and then the clasp he had on Zayn became harder, “Harry, what-”

“I am not him” a voice said, “and you are on my way” and Harry (or not Harry) threw him against the wall and started walking towards the room where the other figures were all outside.

Then, Zayn basically jumped and grabbed Harry’s leg making him fall to the floor, then he climbed on top of him still shaking him, somehow Harry had to comeback.

But Harry or the thing inside Harry was stronger so he stood up even with Zayn on top of him and threw him against the door of the girls’ empty room, at that moment Zayn really thanked the adrenaline because he was sure that was the only thing that made him not black out right there.

“You are a perseverant little shit, aren’t you?” the voice said, “but I’m done with you, you have no use to us”, it said while pinning him against the door with Harry’s hand on his neck. But now Zayn knew what to do because the door handle was right next to him so he moved it and the door opened and they fell through it, but the thing tried to catch itself not to fall, so when Zayn hit the ground he had an space to slide under Harry and stand up on the other side and doing so grabbed the door and closed it locking it with the key that was still around the handle. Next, he ran to the other room ignoring the glowing figures that all went to the door and the banging inside the other room.

The girls were hugging each other on the far end of the bed, but they both shouted “baba!” when Zayn entered “come on”, he said, barely stopping “Aisha I will carry you on my back”. Aisha jumped to his back while he grabbed Erum and put her on his hip, “we are going to run so you need to hold on very tight, ok? No matter what”.

“Okay, baba” they said. And Zayn saw their suitcase that Harry had grabbed earlier and took it with his free hand and then he ran and went downstairs running while they heard shouts and more banging and then Harry’s voice “Zayn! Zayn! Don’t leave me! Please don’t leave me!”

A lump formed on Zayn’s throat and his vision blurred while he tried to keep his tears away, but he kept running and didn’t stop until he got to the car and opened the door for the girls.

“Aisha, help your sister with her seatbelt, please”.

Aisha did so, but Erum said “where is daddy?”.

“He is fine, he was sleeping, but we have to go”, Zayn answered.

“No, baba, look, he’s at the window, I can see him”, Aisha said turning back from her seat.

Zayn shook his head “put on your seatbelt”, he said and turned the key to start the car and drove as fast as he could through the rain and the woods, away from the house.

-

Louis was parked right outside the woods, Zayn stopped the car and got out of it running directly to Louis door that he was opening.

“I’ve been here for hours, what’s going on?” Louis said still inside his car.

“Do you have an umbrella?” Zayn asked, while shaking his head.

“Yes” he said grabbing it from the back seat, “why- wait, where’s Harry?”

Zayn took the umbrella and opened it, while opening the door to the backseat of his car, “you need to take the girls”, he said while handing the umbrella to Louis that had finally left his car and was right behind him.

Then he told the girls “come on, you will go with uncle Lou now”.

“But what about daddy?” Erum said.

“I’m going to pick him up, he can’t walk all the way under this rain, right?” Zayn asked them.

Both girls looked at him with their eyes wide open and nodded, “okay”, Zayn said and took them and their suitcase out of the car and to the other car while Louis covered them from the rain. Zayn kissed them and closed the door, laying against it under the rain for a second.

“Zayn, what’s going on?” Louis asked again.

“Basically you were right” Zayn answered, then sighed “there’s no time to talk I have to go back”.

“What? No. Alone? No way. I’ll go and you should stay with the girls and-”

“Louis, no. Who knows what can happen if you go there. Besides I _left_ him, I have to go back, cause I told him I wasn’t going to leave him, but I did”.

“Zayn-”

Zayn shook his head and Louis knew him well enough to not try to stop him, “go to your house, we will get there”. Louis nodded and hugged Zayn, “ok, see you both back home”.

-

Zayn drove away as fast as possible, but the rain was even worst than before and it felt like the little road through the woods was fighting against him but he kept going until a tree branch fell in front of him scaring him and making him turn the wheel to try to avoid it, which made him go out of the way and crash into another tree, _shit_ , Zayn thought while trying to back the car, but it was useless and he had hit his head and was bleeding. So, he stopped for a moment, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then opened his eyes again, took off his seatbelt and tried to open the door which was stuck, _of course_ , he thought, so he slid to the passenger’s side and opened the door and went out into the woods and under the rain.

He was definitely not dressed to be running around in the dark woods with the only light coming out from his phone and the still functioning car lights at his back, every step was a struggle, he kept getting stuck in the mud and his shoes were heavy with all the water they were collecting, he wasn’t even sure if he had stopped bleeding because water and blood and mud were all mixed together now.

After what seemed like ages but couldn’t be more than just a few minutes, Zayn finally saw the house through the trees, the house was completely dark except for a gleam coming out from the kitchen window that Zayn decided to ignore, he opened the door as quietly as possible, took off his shoes and practically slid through the house until he got to the stairs and climbed them as fast as possible until he was standing outside the closed door where he had left Harry.

The key was still around the handle so Zayn took it and opened the door, he turned on again the light from his phone and directed it to the room, Harry was laying on the floor right in the middle of the room, his head was bleeding almost mirroring Zayn’s injury and the window’s glass was broken as if he had hit his head there, Zayn went to him, he was breathing, thank god, the injury in his forehead looked a bit worrying, but honestly the first step was leaving the house and the second was getting away however since the car was wrecked.

Harry opened his eyes, “Zayn?”, he asked.

Zayn shushed him and told him quietly “come on, we have to go”.

Harry tried to stand up, but the world was spinning so Zayn had to help him, Harry seemed to be having difficulties to breath and Zayn gave a thought to his inhaler in their nightstand before deciding against it. If they managed to get out, they would deal with an asthma attack. They kept walking and started going down the stairs, but of course Zayn’s socks were wet, and he managed to slip, and he didn’t fall because Harry held him but they knocked heavily against the wall. They stayed put for a moment before starting to go downstairs again when suddenly the glowing things appeared and then from upstairs came a voice “welcome back”.

Zayn looked back while Harry very pointedly didn’t and tried to tug Zayn to keep going, but now Zayn could make out the figure much more, it was obviously a woman even if Zayn couldn’t see her face and she was moving towards them slowly bringing a light that was herself.

“I regret to inform you”, she said with a voice that echoed in the room, “that I can’t let you leave”, then she pointed at Harry “I need him”.

Harry stopped tugging Zayn and sighed “I’ll stay if you let him leave”, he said.

“No”, Zayn and the woman said at the same time.

But the woman continued “he was already gone, I don’t let people escape twice”.

And suddenly she was right behind them and pushed them down the stairs.

-

When Zayn came to his senses everything was a mess the windows and the door were open and the wind was hitting Zayn and knocking everything to the floor, Zayn tried to collect himself, he could move, and he could run to the door, but where was Harry.

“Ugh”, he heard the woman somewhere to his left away from the door, “soulmates, this is so annoying” and then she made a noise that he understood after a while was a laugh, “what makes you think I care about that, I’ve seen everything through the years”.

Zayn chanced a look the woman was standing right on top of Harry whose leg was under himself in a weird angle, _well that leaves just running out of the question_ , he thought.

Suddenly the wind became stronger and the woman became bigger and bigger, while the other glowing figures were circling her, then she moved her hand and Harry flew across the room towards a big cabinet that fell on top of him and in the mess of stuff and glass and more wind Zayn stood up and ran to Harry.

Harry’s eyes were open looking at Zayn “go”, he said, Zayn shook his head, grabbed Harry from his underarms and pulled as hard as he could, Harry screamed, which was already bad enough, but the worst part was that it didn’t work, Harry was stuck from his waste down under the heavy cabinet and now he had blacked out probably from the pain _shit shit shit_ Zayn thought, while trying to feel Harry’s pulse.

“It’s too late” the woman appeared suddenly next to him, “the best thing you can do now is die with him”, she said. And Zayn started feeling sleepy, the wind had stopped and all the windows were closing one by one, Zayn closed his eyes, he was so tired he fell forward slowly letting his head rest on Harry’s, feeling his skin against him, when suddenly he heard a loud sharp noise, _what is that_ , he opened his eyes, he knew that noise it was a car honking.

And then the door opened again “Zayn! Harry!” The person coming in saw them “oh my god, what the fuck?”

“Zayn, come on” he said shaking him; it was Niall, the car honking kept going outside. And Niall told Zayn “come on I'll lift this shite up and you pull him out”.

Zayn nodded and took whatever strength he had left to do exactly what Niall said freeing Harry from under the cabinet.

“Fuck”, Niall said looking at Harry's leg, “let’s go”, he said to Zayn while both lifted Harry and ran to the door.

Then they heard another sharp noise, that Zayn would later describe as a very loud howl, but they didn’t stop, they ran all the way to the car that was waiting right outside “what the fuck is that noise?” Liam asked.

“God, who cares”, Niall said putting Harry on the backseat where Zayn slid after him and then running to the passenger seat.

The howling kept getting louder and louder until suddenly all the windows from the house exploded out, but Liam had already started the car and was going away.

Zayn didn’t look back just hugging Harry in the back seat and telling him “we are fine, we are out, we made it, we are together. I love you I love you I love you”.

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys enjoyed I would defenitely like to write more about everything that happened to them in the house.
> 
> So, leave some comments to let me know!
> 
> Or find me on [tumblr](https://iknowimnotyouronly.tumblr.com/) and reblog the [post](https://iknowimnotyouronly.tumblr.com/)! xx
> 
> Also, letting you all know that english is not my first language and writing this is also my way of practicing it, therefore if you read something that didn't make a lot of sense tell me and I will be happy to fix it and learn <3


End file.
